Fortnite and Minecraft might be two of the most popular video games on the planet, but their massive player bases have made them popular choices for online predators who want to contact children. The audience size for both Fortnite and Minecraft is staggering, to the point where Minecraft has one hundred million active players and has outsold Tetris to become the best-selling video game of all time.
Fortnite is equally as impressive as Minecraft in terms of its audience and effect on the industry. There are major movie franchises which have bent over backward to include Fortnite references in their narrative, even in the MCU and Star Wars. Fortnite is part of Star Wars canon officially now, which shows how much Disney wants to horn in on Epic's audience. The money generated by Fortnite is equally as impressive, as it's bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars each month. Minecraft now even has cross-play among all of the consoles, giving it access to a bigger audience and making it even easier for people around the world to play the game together.
The popularity of both Fortnite and Minecraft has made them popular choices for online predators. According to NJ.com, the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey Gurbir Grewal has listed both games among the apps that parents most need to be aware of, as they are being used by predators to target children. The other apps included popular sites like Discord, KiK, and Tumblr. These programs were mentioned following the arrest of twenty-four individuals who believed they were talking to teenagers online when they were actually talking to the New Jersey State Police's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The social media sites and games in question all have chat apps that can be used to contact other users, which is why they have become popular with online predators who wish to keep their identity a secret. The fact that games like Fortnite are so popular with young people makes them attractive prospects for these kinds of people, especially when Fortnite can have 8.3 million concurrent players, making it extremely hard to monitor the player base.
The internet is one of the most incredible inventions ever created by man, but it comes with its own dangers, especially for younger people. Fortnite's dance moves and popularity make it an extreme draw for children as well as a target for child predators, and parents need to be aware of all of the programs their children use, be they simple games like Fortnite and Minecraft or something more complex, as well as talking with them about who they communicate with online and what kind of information is safe to share. These apps and games are becoming a part of our daily lives more and more as time goes on, and online safety should be of paramount importance to those who use the internet on a regular basis.
Source: NJ.com